With the escalating civil war in Iraq, Americans are once again asking if our military personnel and material will be called upon a second time to occupy this desert nation as was done in 2003-2012.  Some of you may know that I had reservations about the initial invasion in 2003, and as events unfolded in the subsequent years, my reservations were confirmed as it became clear this military endevour was an even greater mistake than the invasion and occupation of Vietnam in the 1960’s.  In December, 2008, I wrote the following letter to the editor of the Times Examiner newspaper here in Greenville protesting the invasion and occupation of of Iraq by our central government and its armed forces.  This past week, I looked at my copy of that letter and was reminded that the fears I had regarding the failure of American policies in Iraq were now coming to pass.  I offer this letter as statement of protest against the failed policy of the past and once again to remind the citizens of our great nation that if ever there was a time for making a radical change in our foreign policy now is that time. Politics and public policy change with the wind, but the moral truths and commands of the inspired and inerrant Word of God never change, and nowhere in Scripture can one find a “doctrine of ‘preemptive war'”.

(Editorial note: I wrote this letter in December, 2008.  At that time, Osama Bin Laden was still considered at large by the international community and American troops still occupied Iraq.  Since the writing of this letter, we now know that Bin Laden was assassinated by an American seal team and is no longer living. Also, American troops have not occupied Iraq since 2012.)

To the Editor,

Since March, 2003, Evangelical Christians have defended the United States’ invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq as a ‘just war,” warranted by Scripture.  Many point to God’s use of war in the Old Testament to judge evil rulers while some have even appealed to God’s commands to Israel to wipe out the Canaanites as a justification for the United States’ “war on terror” against militant Islamic forces in Iraq.  Unfortunately these arguments ignore other clear biblical teachings on warfare.

In Romans 13, God grants to civil government the power to avenge evil committed within a society.  Besides this power of capital punishment, this passage also teaches that the government possesses the right to wage defensive wars to protect its citizens against attackers.  On September 11, 2001, the United States was brutally attacked by the Islamic terrorist organization, Al-Qaida, and they used four American jetliners as weapons against our own citizens.  Based on this Scripture, this barbaric attack justified a military response by the United States government against our enemies to avenge the evil committed against our citizens. Immediately, a military force was dispatched to seek out Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and capture him for his barbaric attacks against the United States.  Sadly, in 2002, Bin Laden was never actually apprehended, and to this day, he still remains at large.  However, in 2003, two years later, the 9/11 attacks were used to justify an American military invasion of Iraq even though neither its government nor its citizens participated in those tragic events. (It deserves noting that though the terrorists who participated in the attacks were Saudis, the U. S. government never took any aggressive action towards the Arab kingdom in seeking justice for this attack). Nevertheless, the United States military invaded Iraq, toppled their government, and reduced a sovereign nation to colonial status under military rule which has continued to this day.

The Bible grants the power of the sword to governments to execute evil doers and to protect the innocent.  But justice must be administered justly.  Iraq did not attack or threaten the United States, but our President used cruel and excessive force against this nation to seek justice for Bin Laden’s crime.  Preemptive wars do not end conflict; they ignite them.  Warfare must come as a result of the curse of sin, but may God keep His church from defending unjust wars that result from sinful lusts leading only to bloodshed and to death.  I do not write these words to condemn the country I love.  Rather, I protest this war in the name of the Christian gospel, and utter the prayer of the hymn writer, “America, God mend thine every flaw; confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.” May God enable this nation to honor liberty and law by her practice, and not through sinful bloodshed that contradicts empty rhetoric.

Sincerely,

Stephen M. Cope